With the weather stalling most outdoor work, The Dealer enjoyed several episodes of Big Week on the Farm on RTÉ.

I was most impressed by the farmer hosts, Gillian and Neil O’Sullivan, two vets who milk 110 cows once a day on their farm in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.

It would be difficult to find two people better able to showcase how farming incorporates science, animal welfare and environmental awareness.

At a time when supermarkets are introducing “touch-free packaging” to cater for young people who are too squeamish to handle raw meat, a television programme showing exactly how animals are reared for food is badly needed.

RTÉ, Indiepics and sponsor IFAC did not shy away from the graphic nature of day-to-day farming either, featuring some in-your-face footage of a caesarean section and an operation on an umbilical hernia in a calf.

I’m told the viewing figures peaked at 246,000 people for the Friday finale – that’s one in five Irish TV viewers.

It was equally popular among the Twitterati, I’m told. Around 2.3m Twitter users reached by the hashtag #OnTheFarm during the week, bringing farming to a massive digital audience.

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My Farming Week: Gillian O'Sullivan, Dungarvan, Co Waterford